Publicity apparatus



May 19, 1936.

W. H. CHADWICK I PUBLICITY APPARATUS Original Filed March 17, 1930W/LLl/IM H. CHADW/CK BY [2;

Reissuecl May 19, 1936 7 Re,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE PUBLICITY APPARATUS William H. Chadwick,Chicago, Ill.

Original No. 1,842,895, dated January 26, 1932,

Serial No. 436,413, March 1'7, 1930. Application for reissue June 12,1933, Serial No, 675,403

Claims. (Cl. 1'79-100.4)

The object of this invention is to provide a tributor and microphoneinstalled in a separate novel apparatus for publicity purposes, whichapm; paratus, while usable in many different ways, is Fig. 2 is adiagrammatic view of the apparatus, of particularly great value inconnection with ust at g t Way n Which t five loudspeak- 5 salespromotion work in department stores, exhlers shown in Fig. 1 areconnected up for auto- 5 bitlon halls and like places, matic operationwith the sound producer, ampli- The apparatus consists of number of loudfier, distributor and microphone shown in Fig. 1; speakers, a soundproducer, an amplifier and an 3 is a Ve ca Se through the d sautomaticdistributor. If the apparatus is to be buto used, for instance, in adepartment store, the loud 4 S a front w thereof and speakers are placedin the different departments; F g,- 5 S o r Vertical Section through thethe sound producer, amplifier and distributor are distributor. taken one e of placed in a separate room, such as the olhce of I one emb ent ofmy i v tion the 1111- the sales manager; the sound producer is cono a"1, i3 and H in 1 es ate nected with the distributor through theamplifier; diff ren d p m n in a large r n h 15 and the distributor isconnected separately with n m 5' designates th fii f he sales maneach ofthe loud speakers. ager of the store. As will be observed in Fig. 1, Inone embodiment of my invention, an autot dep t e ts are equipped withindividual matic phonograph may be employed as the sound -d Speakers IT,l9 a Which a e producer. In such a case the phonograph operpr f y quitern m in pp n ut 20 ates on a series of s ecially prepared records m y beconcealed behind or made eninconspieuwhich contain short, interesting,snappy sales n pa f a w p mi r, p tu e o other talks concerning themerchandise displayed in the object. The room l5, Wh iS Separate o t edifferent departments. The talks are preferably departments in Whieh theud Spe s a e ininters'persed with musical selections to attract stalled,contains a Sou d p du Such as an attention. The records are playedautomatically automatic p r p or ny other suitable by the phonograph ina predetermined order, and Sound producing v an ri ly p rthe talk on anyone record is transmitted to the eted Sound elmpiifiei 22 ahd {in auto ac disparticular loud speaker which is located in the tributol It y alsoContain, as an j ct department to which the talk pertains. After to hppa a microphone each record has been played, the phonograph Where the paph s used for the sound causes the distributor to automatically switchto producing device t is equipped With a number another loud speaker.The records are arranged of Sound record? 25 a is adapted to r eaccording to subject matter in the same order as recordsaiitomatleallly, one after the other, m the switching is effected by thedistributor, Predetermmed der: The records 25.01 Whatwhereby to transmiteach of the sales talks to the ever other means 15 i .i m carefully lproper department for the Same pared sales talks concerning themerchandise While the foregoing explanation is indicative dlspla'yed theT 9l P Whlch v the loud speakers are installed, and the sales m ageneral way of the nature-of the mventlon talks are preferablinterspersed with musical se 40 other objects and advantages will beapparent to y those Skilled in the art upon a full understandinglections or other entertaining material to attract o, s and hold theattention of shoppers passing of the construction, arrangement andoperation through the departments. when the sound 0f the apparatus ducer2-1 is a phonograph it is a fully automatic one form of the mventlfm P ee machine, in the sense that it will position and for the purpose ofexemplificatlon, but it will of play each of the records 25 in apredetermined coursebe appreciated that e invention is order withoutmanual control. The particular pt embodiment in other more 195$phonograph construction shown in Fig. 2 is simie erbo for-ms winingequally Within the lar to an automatic phonograph which is on thetemplated Scope of the pp claims market at the present time, but thepresent in- In the a pany n w vention is not in any way concerned withthe de- Fig. 1 is a schematic view intended to illustrate tails ofconstruction of the phonograph, since a number of different departmentsin a store, any one of a large number of different automatic showingloud speakers installed in each of the phonographs will serve thepurposes of the indepartments and a sound producer, amplifier,disvention equally well.

The reproducer 26 of the sound producer is connected electrically bywires 21 with the amplifier 22, and the amplifier is in turn connectedelectrically by wires 28 with the distributor 23, which distributor isshown in detail in Figs. 3, 4 and 5 and preferably includes a rotatablecontact arm 29 and a stationary disk 30 having a plurality ofcircumferentially-spaced contact points 3|. One of the wires 28 isconnected with the contact arm 29, and the other is connected witheach-of the contact points 3|. The contact arm 29 is connected to theloud speakers by wires 32, and the contact points 3| are each separatelyconnected to the loud speakers by wires 33. The construction of thedistributor is such that a lever 34 which is connected with the contactarm 29 through a pawl 35 and ratchet wheel 36 will be engaged by areciprocating part 31 of the sound producer and will be swung againstthe resistance of a return spring 38 through an angle corresponding tothe distance between adjacent contact points, whereby to move thecontact arm 29 through a corresponding angle and cause the loud speakerpreviously operating to be disconnected from-the sound producer and thenext loud speaker to be connected up with the same ready to reproducethe sounds on the next record, or the like.

Should the sales manager or some other person desire to give a specialtalk for the benefit of the customers or employees in any particulardepartment, he may do so by closing a switch 39, which switch connectsthe microphone 24 with the amplifier, distributor and loud speakers.During the period of such talk the sound producer may be shut off. Ifthe talk concerns all of the departments, instead of only one, he maytemporarily connect all of the loud speakers together for simultaneousoperation, either by means of a special attachment on the distributorfor that purpose or through the instrumentality of a separateinterconnecting switch. 7

Instead of being used in different parts of a department store,exhibition hall, or school, as above described, the loud speakers may beinstalled in the show window of stores and operated either alone or insynchronism with other loud speakers installed in the departmentshandling the merchandise displayed in the windows.

The construction and electrical hook-up of the distributor with theother parts of the apparatus are minor features capable of considerablemodification which any electrician with an understanding of theinvention can work out satisfactorily in any one of a great manydifferent ways.

As a modification, a moving picture projector can be associated witheach of the loud speakers and operated in synchronism therewith.

From the foregoing description, it will be appreciated that theapparatus of the invention is of considerable value as aninstrumentality for creating sales or giving publicity of any sort tothe particular locations most likely to be favorably affected by thesame, and that the range of use of the invention is practicallyunlimited.

Having thus described my invention I claim:

1. In an apparatus of the character described, in combination, anautomatic phonograph for operation on a plurality of records containingsales talks or other publicity matter, an amplifier connected with thephonograph, a distributor connected with the amplifier, a plurality ofloud speakers connected with the distributor, and means operable uponchanging records for causing the distributor to automatically connecteach of the loud speakers one or more at a time with the phonographthrough the amplifier whereby to reproduce difierent matter through"different loud speakers.

2. In an apparatus of the character described, in combination, anautomatic phonograph for operation on a plurality of records containingsales talks or other publicity matter, a distributor connected with thephonograph, a plurality of loud speakers connected with the distributor,and means operable upon changing records for causing the distributor toautomatically connect each of the loud speakers one or more at a timewith the phonograph, whereby to reproduce difierent matter throughdifierent loud speakers.

3. In an apparatus of the character described, in combination, anautomatic phonograph for operation on a plurality of records containingsales talks or other publicity matter, an amplifier connected with thephonograph, a distributor connected with the amplifier, a plurality ofloud speakers connected with the distributor and means actuatedautomatically by the phonograph at the time of changing records forcausing the distributor to automatically connect each of the loudspeakers one or more at a time with the phonograph through the amplifierwhereby to reproduce difierent matter through different loud speakers.

4. In an apparatus of the character described 3 in combination, anautomatic phonograph for operation on a plurality of records containingsales talks or other publicity matter, an amplifier connected with thephonograph, a distributor connected with the amplifier, a plurality ofloud speakers connected with the distributor, means actuatedautomatically by the phonograph at the time of changing records forcausing the distributor to automatically connect each of the loudspeakers one or more at a time with the phonograph through the amplifierwhereby to reproduce different matter through different loud speakers,and a microphone connected with the amplifier for optionally permittingreproduction of unrecorded talks through any or all of the loudspeakers.

5. In an apparatus of the character described, in combination, anautomatic phonograph for operation on a plurality of records containingsales talks or other publicity matter, an amplifier connected with thephonograph, a distributor connected with the amplifier, a plurality ofloud speakers connected with the distributor, means actuatedautomatically by the phonograph at the time of changing records forcausing the distributor to automatically connect each of the loudspeakers one or more at a time with the phonograph through the amplifierwhereby to reproduce diflerent matter through difierent loud speakers, amicrophone, and means actuatable manually by an operator for connectingthe microphone with the amplifier to permit reproduction of unrecordedtalks through any or all of the loud speakers.

WILLIAM H. CHADWICK.

